The factory NAV unit in my 07 Tundra is great but it has an irritating and poorly-designed safety feature which disables many of the functions and on-screen buttons whenever the vehicle is in motion. This is done presumably to prevent the driver from being distracted while driving, however it doesn't take into account that the front seat passengers will want to use those functions (especially on long trips). This is a common problem on many vehicle NAV systems and there are literally dozens of threads and thousands of posts on forums all over the web with vehicle owners seeking a solution to enable all the NAV functions while in motion.
For the 07 Tundra you can purchase or burn a modified firmware DVD which will enable the functions, however this can be expensive, the burning process is tricky and requires a specific hardware / software setup, the bypass function has to be initialized every time you start the vehicle, and you will lose the bypass function if you upgrade to the newer factory firmware when it is released.
The ideal solution was to find some type of hardware modification which will work with most NAV units and won't be tied to a specific firmware version. Obviously I wanted something cheap, fairly easy to acquire, easy to install, automatic to use, and reliable. I came up with the perfect solution after hundreds of hours of research, firmware evaluations, vehicle wiring tests, and some basic electronics tinkering.
The answer was to build my own speed pulse generator which would replicate the signal from the Tundra at 1 kmph so that the functions would all stay enabled all the time regardless of the firmware version. The parts cost about $15 and it works like a charm. You can see the photos and details in my latest installation report by
clicking here and then scrolling down to report #16 - NAV Speed Pulse Generator.
Enjoy.
